Can and Can't

Can is a modal verb.

Can is used to express ability or to say that something is possible.

Can is the same for all subjects. We don't add an 'S' in the third person (like other verbs)

The verb that comes after Can is in the infinitive without to:

 I can speak Spanish. (= it is possible for me to speak Spanish = I have the ability to

speak Spanish)
 He can swim well.
 We can see our neighbour in the garden.
 They can play the guitar.

Negative
To form the negative we add "not" after can to form one word: cannot.

We can also contract the negative to form can't. (can't = cannot)

 I cannot play the piano. We can't go to the cinema tonight.

 She cannot speak French very well. He can't drive a car.

Questions
To from the question we change the position of the subject and the auxiliary verb.

The main verb is still in the infinitive without to.

 Where can I buy an ice-cream?
 Can I go to the party, please?
 Can you speak Japanese?
 What can we do on Saturday?
Remember that you can use short answers:

 Can I sit here please? Yes, you can.

 Can you speak Chinese? No, I can't.

Summary Chart
 
Have and Has
Have - Has - Go - Goes
Simple Present Tense
Conjugation of Have
To Have = To show possession / a quality

Subject To Have The Rest of the sentence

I / you / we / they have an old bike.

he / she / it has a new car.

Have in Negative Sentences

To make a negative sentence in English with To Have  we use Don't or Doesn't followed
by Have (never Has ).

Affirmative: You have a pen.

Negative: You don't have a pen.

You will see that we add don't between the subject and the verb. We use Don't when the
subject is I, you, we or they.

Affirmative: He has a pencil.

Negative: He doesn't have a pencil.

When the subject is he, she or it, we add doesn't between the subject and the verb to make a
negative sentence. Notice that we don't use the normal third person conjugation (has,) in
negative sentences. We use the base form of the infinitive as seen below.

Word Order of Negative Sentences

The following is the word order to construct a basic negative sentence in English in the Present
Tense using Don't or Doesn't.

Subject don't/doesn't To Have* The Rest of the sentence

I / you / we / they don't
have cereal for lunch.
he / she / it doesn't
* Verb: The verb that goes here is the base form of the infinitive = The infinitive without TO
before the verb. Instead of the infinitive To have it is just the have part.
Remember that the infinitive is the verb before it is conjugated (changed) and it begins
with TO. For example: to have, to eat, to go, to live, to speak etc.

Examples of Negative Sentences with Have:

 You don't have a clue.
 John doesn't have many friends.
 We don't have time for a rest.
 It doesn't have four wheels.
 They don't have the correct answers.
 She doesn't have a nice dress.

Questions with Have 

To make a question in English with To Have , we normally use Do or Does at the beginning of
the question.

Affirmative: You have a girlfriend.

Question: Do you have a girlfriend?

You will see that we add DO at the beginning of the affirmative sentence to make it a question.
We use Do when the subject is I, you, we or they.

Affirmative: She has a boyfriend.

Question: Does she have a boyfriend?

When the subject is he, she or it, we add DOES at the beginning to make the affirmative
sentence a question. Notice that we don't use the normal third person conjugation (has) in
questions. We use the base form of the infinitive as seen below.

Word Order of Questions with Do and Does

The following is the word order to construct a basic question in English using Do or Does.

Do/Does Subject Verb* The Rest of the sentence

Do I / you / we / they
have a new bike?
Does he / she / it

*Verb: The verb that goes here is the base form of the infinitive = The infinitive without TO
before the verb. Instead of the infinitive To have it is just the have part.
Remember that the infinitive is the verb before it is conjugated (changed) and it begins
with TO. For example: to have, to eat, to go, to live, to speak etc.
Examples of Questions with Have and Go:

 Do you have a dictionary?

 Does Mary have a dictionary?

Short Answers with Have 

In questions that use do/does it is possible to give short answers to direct questions as follows:

Short Answer Short Answer

Sample Questions
(Affirmative) (Negative)
Do you have a car? Yes, I do. No, I don't.
Do I have time? Yes, you do. No, you don't.
Do you both have time? Yes, we do. No, we don't.
Do they have a car? Yes, they do. No, they don't.
Does he have a car? Yes, he does. No, he doesn't.
Does she have a car? Yes, she does. No, she doesn't.
Does it have four wheels? Yes, it does. No, it doesn't.
However, if a question word such as who, when, where, why, which or how is used in the
question, you can not use the short answers above to respond to the question.
Present Simple
The simple present tense in English is used to describe an action that is regular, true or
normal.

We use the present tense:

1. For repeated or regular actions in the present time period.

 I take the train to the office.

 The train to Berlin leaves every hour.
 John sleeps eight hours every night during the week.
2. For facts.

 The President of The USA lives in The White House.

 A dog has four legs.
 We come from Switzerland.
3. For habits.

 I get up early every day.

 Carol brushes her teeth twice a day.
 They travel to their country house every weekend.
4. For things that are always / generally true.

 It rains a lot in winter.

 The Queen of England lives in Buckingham Palace.
 They speak English at work.

Verb Conjugation & Spelling

We form the present tense using the base form of the infinitive (without the TO).

In general, in the third person we add 'S' in the third person.

Subject Verb The Rest of the sentence

I / you / we / they speak / learn English at home
he / she / it speaks / learns English at home
The spelling for the verb in the third person differs depending on the ending of that verb:

1. For verbs that end in -O, -CH, -SH, -SS, -X, or -Z we add -ES in the third person.

 go – goes
 catch – catches
 wash – washes
 kiss – kisses
 fix – fixes
 buzz – buzzes
2. For verbs that end in a consonant + Y, we remove the Y and add -IES.
  marry – marries
 study – studies
 carry – carries
 worry – worries
NOTE: For verbs that end in a vowel + Y, we just add -S.

 play – plays
 enjoy – enjoys
 say – says

Negative Sentences in the Simple Present Tense

To make a negative sentence in English we normally use Don't or Doesn't with all verbs
EXCEPT To Be and Modal verbs (can, might, should etc.).

Affirmative: You speak French.


Negative: You don't speak French.
You will see that we add don't between the subject and the verb. We use Don't when the
subject is I, you, we or they.

Affirmative: He speaks German.


Negative: He doesn't speak German.
When the subject is he, she or it, we add doesn't between the subject and the verb to make a
negative sentence. Notice that the letter S at the end of the verb in the affirmative sentence
(because it is in third person) disappears in the negative sentence. We will see the reason why
below.

Negative Contractions
Don't = Do not
Doesn't = Does not

I don't like meat = I do not like meat.

There is no difference in meaning though we normally use contractions in spoken English.

Word Order of Negative Sentences

The following is the word order to construct a basic negative sentence in English in the Present
Tense using Don't or Doesn't.

Subject don't/doesn't Verb* The Rest of the sentence

I / you / we / they don't have / buy
cereal for breakfast
he / she / it doesn't eat / like etc.
* Verb: The verb that goes here is the base form of the infinitive = The infinitive without TO
before the verb. Instead of the infinitive To have it is just the have part.

Remember that the infinitive is the verb before it is conjugated (changed) and it begins
with TO. For example: to have, to eat, to go, to live, to speak etc.

Examples of Negative Sentences with Don't and Doesn't:

 You don't speak Arabic.
 John doesn't speak Italian.
 We don't have time for a rest.
 It doesn't move.
 They don't want to go to the party.
 She doesn't like fish.

Questions in the Simple Present Tense

To make a question in English we normally use Do or Does. It has no translation in Spanish
though it is essential to show we are making a question. It is normally put at the beginning of
the question.

Affirmative: You speak English.


Question: Do you speak English?
You will see that we add DO at the beginning of the affirmative sentence to make it a question.
We use Do when the subject is I, you, we or they.

Affirmative: He speaks French.


Question: Does he speak French?
When the subject is he, she or it, we add DOES at the beginning to make the affirmative
sentence a question. Notice that the letter S at the end of the verb in the affirmative sentence
(because it is in third person) disappears in the question. We will see the reason why below.

We DON'T use Do or Does in questions that have the verb To Be or Modal Verbs (can, must,

might, should etc.)

Word Order of Questions with Do and Does

The following is the word order to construct a basic question in English using Do or Does.

Do/Does Subject Verb* The Rest of the sentence

Do I / you / we / they have / need
a new bike?
Does he / she / it want etc.
*Verb: The verb that goes here is the base form of the infinitive = The infinitive without TO
before the verb. Instead of the infinitive To have it is just the have part.

Remember that the infinitive is the verb before it is conjugated (changed) and it begins
with TO. For example: to have, to eat, to go, to live, to speak etc.
Examples of Questions with Do and Does:

 Do you need a dictionary?

 Does Mary need a dictionary?
 Do we have a meeting now?
 Does it rain a lot in winter?
 Do they want to go to the party?
 Does he like pizza?

Short Answers with Do and Does

In questions that use do/does it is possible to give short answers to direct questions as follows:

Short Answer Short Answer

Sample Questions
(Affirmative) (Negative)
Do you like chocolate? Yes, I do. No, I don't.
Do I need a pencil? Yes, you do. No, you don't.
Do you both like chocolate? Yes, we do. No, we don't.
Do they like chocolate? Yes, they do. No, they don't.
Does he like chocolate? Yes, he does. No, he doesn't.
Does she like chocolate? Yes, she does. No, she doesn't.
Does it have four wheels? Yes, it does. No, it doesn't.
However, if a question word such as who, when, where, why, which or how is used in the
question, you can not use the short answers above to respond to the question.

Adjectives
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun).
An adjective gives us more information about a person or thing.
Correct order of adjectives
Adjectives sometimes appear after the verb To Be 
The order is To Be + Adjective.
 He is tall.
 She is happy.
Adjectives sometimes appear before a noun.
The order is Adjective + Noun.
 Slow car
 Brown hat
BUT… Sometimes you want to use more than one adjective to describe something (or
someone).
What happens if a hat is both brown AND old?
Do we say… an old brown hat OR a brown old  hat?
An old brown hat is correct because a certain order for adjectives is expected.
A brown old hat sounds incorrect or not natural.
So what is the correct order of adjectives before a
noun?
The order of adjectives before a noun is usually the following:
Opinion – Size – Age – Shape – Color – Origin – Material – Purpose
If we take the first letter of each one, it creates OSASCOMP which is an easy way to
remember the order.
Let’s look at an example about describing a bag.
 It is an ugly small old thin red Italian cotton sleeping bag
It is not common to have so many adjectives before a noun, but I do this so you can see
the correct order of adjectives.
Ugly is an opinion, small is a size, old refers to age, thin refers to shape, red is a
color, Italian refers to its origin, cotton refers to the material the bag is made of, sleeping is
the purpose of the bag.
I will go into more details about each of these categories in a moment. First, let’s see two
more examples:
 A beautiful long white French silk wedding dress.
 Large ancient Greek clay flower vases.
Let’s study the first one.
Here we have a dress. Dress is a noun, the name of a thing. Let’s describe this dress.
What type of dress is it? What is the purpose of this dress?
It is used for weddings so it is…
 a wedding dress.
Let’s image the dress is made of silk. It isn’t made of plastic or gold, it is made of silk.
Silk is a material so it goes before the purpose. We say it is:
 a silk wedding dress.
Now, this dress was made in France. France is a noun, its adjective is French.
Its origin is French. Its origin, French, goes before the material, Silk. So we say it is:
 a French silk wedding dress.
Let’s add the color of the dress. What color is it? White. Color goes before Origin so we say
it is:
 a white French silk wedding dress.
What is the shape of this dress? Is it long or short? It is long. The adjective Long goes
under the category of shape because shape also covers weight or length. (We will see
more about this in a moment) We now say it is:
 a long white French silk wedding dress.
Let’s add one more adjective. Is the dress beautiful or ugly? Well, you should always say it
is beautiful or it will ruin her wedding day.
Beautiful is an opinion and adjectives about opinions go before all the other adjectives. So
our final description of the dress is:
 a beautiful long white French silk wedding dress.
Now of course we don’t normally add so many adjectives before a noun. This example is
just to show you the order of adjectives.
The order is NOT fixed
IMPORTANT: The order of adjectives before a noun is NOT 100% FIXED.
This chart is only a guide and is the order that is preferred.
You may see or hear slight variations of the order of adjectives in real life though what
appears in the chart is the order that is expected the most.
Now, let’s look at each type of adjective in more detail (with examples)…
Types of Adjectives
OPINION
Opinion: These adjectives explain what we think about something. This is our opinion,
attitude or observations that we make. Some people may not agree with you because
their opinion may be different. These adjectives almost always come before all other
adjectives.
Some examples of adjectives referring to opinion are:
 delicious, lovely, nice, cool, pretty, comfortable,
difficult
For example: She is sitting in a comfortable green armchair.
Comfortable is my opinion or observation, the armchair looks comfortable. The armchair is
also green.
Here we have two adjectives. The order is comfortable green armchair because Opinion
(comfortable) is before Color (green).
SIZE
Size: Adjectives about size tell us how big or small something is.
Some examples of adjectives referring to size are:
 big, small, tall, huge, tiny, large, enormous
For example: a big fat red monster.
Notice how big is first because it refers to size and fat is next because it refers to shape or
weight. Then finally we have the color red before the noun.
AGE
Age: Adjectives of age tell us how old someone or something is. How old is it?
Some examples of adjectives referring to age are:
 old, young, new, antique, ancient
For example: a scary old house
Scary is my opinion, old refers to the age of the house. Scary is before old because opinion
is before age. 
SHAPE
Shape: Also weight and length. These adjectives tell us about the shape of something or
how long or short it is. It can also refer to the weight of someone or something.
Some examples of adjectives referring to shape are:
 round, square, long, fat, heavy, oval, skinny, straight
For example: a small round table.
What is the shape of the table? It is round.
What is the size of the table? It is small.
The order is small round table because size is before shape.
COLOR
Color: The color or approximate color of something.
Some examples of adjectives referring to color are:
 green, blue, reddish, purple, pink, orange, red, black,
white
(adding ISH at the end makes the color an approximate color, in this case reddish is
“approximately red”)
Our example: a long yellow dress.
What is the color of the dress? It is yellow.
The dress is also long. Long which is an adjective of shape or more precisely length, is
before an adjective of color.
ORIGIN
Origin: Tells us where something is from or was created.
Some examples of adjectives referring to origin are:
 American, British, Indian, Turkish, Chilean, Australian,
Brazilian
Remember, nationalities and places of origin start with a capital letter.
For example: an ancient Egyptian boy.
His origin is Egyptian. Egyptian needs to be with a capital E which is the big E.
Ancient refers to age so it goes before the adjective of origin.
MATERIAL
Material: What is the thing made of or what is it constructed of?
Some examples of adjectives referring to material are:
  gold, wooden, plastic, synthetic, silk, paper, cotton,
silver
For example: a beautiful pearl necklace
Pearl is a material. They generally come from oysters.
The necklace is made of what material? It is made of pearls.
The necklace is also beautiful so I put this adjective of opinion before the adjective
referring to material.
PURPOSE
Purpose: What is it used for? What is the purpose or use of this thing? Many of these
adjectives end in
–ING but not always.
Some examples of adjectives referring to purpose are:
 gardening (as in gardening gloves), shopping (as in
shopping bag), riding (as in riding boots)
Our example: a messy computer desk
What is the purpose of the desk? It is a place for my computer, it is designed specifically to
use with a computer. It is a computer desk. In this case, the desk is also very messy. Messy
is an opinion. Some people think my desk is messy. So, the order is opinion before
purpose.
So this is the general order of adjectives in English and you can remember them by the
mnemonic OSASCOMP.
BUT did you know that we could add some extra categories?
BONUS ADJECTIVE GROUPS
We can add the adjective categories of Number and Condition.
NUMBER
Number: Tells us the amount or quantity of something.
It is not only for normal cardinal numbers like, one, two, three… but also other words that
refer to quantity such as many or several.
Our examples of adjectives referring to numbers are:
 One, two, three, many, several
For example: three hungry dogs
Number adjectives go before all the other adjectives, including adjectives about opinion.
Hungry is a condition or state so the order is Three hungry dogs.
CONDITION
Condition: Tells us the general condition or state of something
Our examples of adjectives referring to condition or state are:
 Clean, wet, rich, hungry, broken, cold, hot, dirty
For example: Two smelly old shoes.
Smelly is a condition or state. Smelly is before old which refers to age. The number two is at
the beginning as numbers always are.
Really vs Very
A. Really And Very As Adverbs
Really: (adv.) is used to describe adjectives, verbs or other adverbs.

 She thought the project was really interesting. > adjective ✔︎

 He was driving really slowly. > adverb ✔︎
 I really enjoy my job. > verb ✔︎

Very: (adv.) is used to describe adjectives and adverbs (but not verbs!)

 She thought the project was very interesting. > adjective ✔︎

 He was driving very slowly. > adjective ✔︎
 I very enjoy my job. > verb ✗
Parts of speech

NOUN - (Naming word)

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing or idea.

Examples of nouns: Daniel, London, table, dog, teacher, pen, city, happiness, hope

Example sentences: Steve lives in Sydney. Mary uses pen and paper to write letters.

Learn more about the different types of nouns.

PRONOUN - (Replaces a Noun)

A pronoun is used in place of a noun or noun phrase to avoid repetition.

Examples of pronouns: I, you, we, they, he, she, it, me, us, them, him, her, this, those

Example sentences: Mary is tired. She wants to sleep. I want her to dance with me.

ADJECTIVE - (Describing word)

An adjective describes, modifies or gives more information about a noun or pronoun.

Examples: big, happy, green, young, fun, crazy, three

Example sentences: The little girl had a pink hat.

VERB - (Action Word)

A verb shows an action or state of being. A verb shows what someone or something is doing.

Examples: go, speak, run, eat, play, live, walk, have, like, are, is

Example sentences: I like Woodward English. I study their charts and play their games.

ADVERB - (Describes a verb)

An adverb describes/modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It tells how, where, when,
how often or to what extent. Many adverbs end in -LY

Examples: slowly, quietly, very, always, never, too, well, tomorrow, here

Example sentences: I am usually busy. Yesterday, I ate my lunch quickly.

PREPOSITION - (Shows relationship)

A preposition shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word. They can indicate
time, place, or relationship.

Examples: at, on, in, from, with, near, between, about, under

Example sentences: I left my keys on the table for you.

CONJUNCTION - (Joining word)

A conjunction joins two words, ideas, phrases or clauses together in a sentence and shows
how they are connected.

Examples: and, or, but, because, so, yet, unless, since, if.
Example sentences: I was hot and exhausted but I still finished the marathon.

INTERJECTION - (Expressive word)

An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses a strong feeling or emotion. It is a short
exclamation.

Examples: Ouch! Wow! Great! Help! Oh! Hey! Hi!

Example sentences: Wow! I passed my English test. Great! – Ouch! That hurt.